Glee and Madrigal Concert

“. . . one hundred subscriptions will be received at $20 each; entitling the holder to five admissions to each concert, and two admissions to the two rehearsals to be held at Chickering’s new Chamber Concert Room. . . .”

“Old wine in new bottles was opened at Steinway Hall last night. The Vocal Society of New York, being a group of experienced madrigal singers under a new name, gave their first concert under the leadership of Mr. Mosenthal. The performance was a charming [illeg.] throughout, and entirely successful. Among the madrigals composers represented were Morley, Weelkes, Wilbye , and Stafford Smith [illeg.] to the more general selections on the programme. Schumann, Marschner, Kinkel, [illeg.], Blumenthal, Mendelssohn, Haydn, Schroter, [illeg.] Miss Beebe, Mr. Fritsch and Mr. Beckett were the principal soloists. The success of this concert is a [illeg.] of the pleasant treats which the madrigal singers have in store of us.”

“The ladies and gentlemen who, under Dr. Brown’s direction, first unfolded to our public the beauties of the old madrigal writers, have reorganized themselves under the title of The Vocal Society of New York, and last night gave their first concert under the new name. The Society has undergone some changes since it won its way so directly into our regard two years ago. Some of the members have strayed away into another club of the same general character; others have come in their places, and others again have been added to the roll; Dr. Brown, though still a leading spirit of the company, no longer wields the baton, and Mr. Mosenthal stands at the conductor’s desk; but substantially the Society is the same, and certainly it has lost none of its old excellence. The concert of last night, at Steinway Hall, was the first of a subscription series, for which no single tickets are sold, and it was attended by an audience of the very best character, which occupied nearly every seat in the room. The programme was rather inferior to the programmes of last season. It contained for a society of this kind a great deal of weak music, and of the fourteen pieces embraced in it only four were madrigals. One of these, ‘Lady, when I behold,’ by John Wilbye, is new to our public. It is well described in the programme as ‘a model of this kind of composition,’ for in delicacy, ingenuity, variety, and elaboration it has hardly a rival, though to the untutored ear it lacks the fascination of such pieces as ‘Fair Phyllis I Saw,’ or ‘When First I Saw Your Face,’ which were so popular at former concerts. Morley’s ‘Fire! Fire! My Heart’ and J. Stafford Smith’s ‘Flora now Calleth,’ which were sung last night, are both exquisite little gems; and Weelkes ‘The Nightingale’ is a marvel of quaint conceits. There were no glees, but we had several extended choruses, including a ‘Champagne Song’ of Schroter’s, a ‘Soldier’s Farewell’ by Kinkel, and the beautiful ‘O Eros, All conquering Power,’ from Mendelssohn’s ‘Antigone,’ all for male voices alone. The mixed chorus and quartette, ‘Eli, Eli, Lama Sabaethani,’ from Haydn’s Passion Music, noble as it is, failed of its due effect, not through any fault of the singers, but because it is impossible to present this music fairly with only a piano accompaniment. Miss Beebe, Mr. W. H. Beckett, and Mr. Fritsch interspersed some solos through the evening—the lady deserving a great deal of praise for a neat (?) and tasteful execution of ‘The Nightingales’s Trill,’ Mr. Beckett choosing a song of Blumenthal’s, and Mr. Fritsch being at his best in one of Abt’s (we think it was Abt’s) which he gave for an encore. What a beautiful volume of tone came from those seventy throats. How perfect was the time, how exquisite the shading! The male choruses, especially, were superb, and the ‘Antigone’ chorus, with its magnificent crescendo, it is enjoyment even to remember. In Mr. Mosenthal, the Society has secured a conductor who will be satisfied with no rough or slovenly work; what he has done with the Mendelssohn Glee Club is proof enough of that. Thorough, precise, highly refined, and endowed, we imagine, with that essential requisite, strong personal magnetism, we shall be surprised if he do not give us with this admirable society some of the best chorus-singing ever heard in New-York.”

“It seems to us that the ‘Vocal Society’ has not displayed any very great amount of imagination in taking to itself a name; but on the other hand, it is very certain that but few societies by any other name could sing as sweetly, and this one may as well climb to fame, perhaps, under the vague and general appellation as under any other.

“The Society gave its first concert of the season at Steinway Hall on Thursday evening. It never gave a better one. The influence of a broad, catholic, and matured taste and of great discretion was manifested in the programme. Nothing is more difficult than to say what shall be chosen and what shall be rejected in making up the selections for such a concert, and in what order they shall be given. Variety and contrast in the compositions have to be looked to, and the variety of tastes in the audiences to be consulted. A concert that was all madrigals would be a tedious one.

“In this one there was a judicious blending of the various schools. A four-part composition of Schumann (Gypsy Life), free and melodious in treatment. A chorus from Mendelssohn’s Antigone music, [illegible] and severe in form, almost to the point of [illegible], for Mendelssohn wrote this Greek music intentionally in sympathy with the spirit of [illegible] and of [illegible] refined Greek poetry and [illegible] down all the [illegible line] and kept his music within the strictest bounds.

“Then there was a noble and solemn extract from Haydn’s Passion music—a composition in which that great composer rose beyond his ordinary level of exaltation, out of the sphere of pleasant gracious expression, which was his habit, into that of a deep, glowing religious sentiment. The piano formed but an inadequate accompaniment to the work. Its dull thud was rather a drawback than an aid.

“There were also, of course, madrigals, and these were delightfully, almost faultlessly sung.

“The Society is under the direction of Mr. Mosenthal, than whom we believe there is no more competent conductor in the city. He is young and full of talent, and exercises a wise and firm control over the different societies that he leads. Conductors as a rule, in fact musicians as a rule, are nervous and irritable, and show much foolish temper at rehearsal. The Vocal Society is happy in the possession of one whose temper and patience are on a par with his knowledge.”

Description of the newly-organized society. “…the first concert took place on Thursday, Dec. 15^th, and met with signal success.”

“Our old friends of the Madrigal Society, whose concerts for the past two years have been the veritable gems of the season, have constituted themselves anew under the less distinctive name of Vocal Society, and gave their first soirée at Steinway Hall on the evening of the 15th. Only three madrigals were sung, but these were as quaint and charming as ever, and were received with all the old enthusiasm. Among our best choral societies it is hard to discriminate in the order of merit, but certainly the singing of the chorus from MENDELSSOHN’S ‘Antigone’ at the concert, left nothing to be desired. And we may say as much of the interpretation of the ineffably solemn and beautiful ‘Passion’ music of HAYDN, which this Society has had the great merit of introducing to a New-York public. We are, therefore, the more surprised at the want of all sense of keeping which could allow the Society to bestow its time and capacities on such vulgar rubbish as the ‘Champagne Song,’ and that of Mr. BECKETT was admirably sung and drew forth a unanimous encore—were entirely out of harmony with the madrigals and more music of the far Elizabethan time, it is depressing to be landed in the nineteenth century once more.”